Bobcat Bulletin
April 13, 2020 - Special Edition
Thank you!
What. A. Week. This was not the Spring Break we planned. For reference, Tuesday was a Super Pink Full Moon. I think that explains everything....
I will make this brief, as many of us are heading into a holiday weekend, but I want to say again how grateful I am for the unbelievably hard work you're pouring into our students. I feel it is important to say a special thank you to our MTSS and Humanities teachers. You are just as important as the rest of our teachers, however, this week, you were set aside as we figured out the next step in this process. For that, I apologize. Your patience with us in this process has not gone unnoticed. This week we tackled Mountain Number One. There are many more mountains to come. All questions will be answered in time. We will get there.
I have heard you when you have asked for grace and patience as we roll this out. And, I promise that there is no way that we can navigate this without it. I appreciate you giving me the same in return. There was not a class that I could take during my master’s program for this, and I don’t have a manual that I can turn to find the answer. So much happens so fast and things are changing by the minute. Therefore, I will make wrong turns along the way. Please use that same grace and patience with me.
I am only an email, text, or phone call away from answering a question or helping to settle a worry. Please don’t hesitate to reach out. We have to lean on each other in order to find our way.
Have an amazing weekend. You deserve it.
<3 Devon
Phase Three
The information below regarding the next rollout of our Distance Learning Plan was sent to grade level chairs throughout this week. I’m hopeful that they have shared the information with all of you. The information below is mostly a summary of what has been shared, with some additional info that is in bold:
Thank you to everyone for meeting with me on Tuesday and to collegial chairs for meeting again on Wednesday. We heard the concerns that were most important to you:
Fewer face to face meetings
No bell schedule
More time for SEL
Freedom to set your own planning times and family engagement times
As a result, based on your input, MAISA guidelines, the Governor’s Executive Order, along with MDE’s guidance, parent input, and collaboration among central office and administrators, we created a modified proposed schedule that was shared with collegial chairs for input and feedback.
Due to the compressed schedule, and the shared value of getting back to instruction that counts toward our required days, we needed to get this work done expediently.
After dialogue and input from grade level collegial chairs at all six elementary schools, we have achieved consensus that the proposed plan is workable and will be reviewed with other stakeholders for input, including the Board of Education and Wayne County RESA for approval. We have agreed as a District Team to review our implementation of the plan, as well as consider adjustments based on MDE’s guidance that came out Thursday morning. We believe our phase 2 plans have been very successful and well-received by our families. Our goal is to build on that success.
On Wednesday, we shared some identified values based on stakeholder’s voices. These values included:
One Daily Face-to-Face video Interaction with students
Recording will depend on whether or not it is new instruction - new instruction gets recorded...follow up to a viewed lesson does not
Please send me invites to your zoom meetings for each day AND put them on the Amerman Calendar. You might even use the recurring meeting option with Zoom...that way you don’t have to create an invite for every single meeting.
District Student Schedule by grade level for live interactions (see schedule below)
The min and max face to face time does represent a portion of the total learning time for the day. It only refers to the min and max for face-to-face video interaction
For the live face-to-face meetings
4 days per week - Academic and SEL focus
1 day per week - All SEL Focus
Moving forward, focus on new instruction on the essential standards (Big Rocks still to come)
Family engagement - no set time within your schedule, but continue to do what you are doing in terms of responding as promptly as possible and/or within 24 hours depending in need
Planning is on your time
Soft Roll out
Based on the feedback from the Wednesday meeting with Collegial Chairs, a few items required clarification:
Slow rollout for layering in live face-to-face meetings. Teachers may exercise best professional practices in determining how to roll this out to your students next week based on your knowledge of students. (Week of April 13th, 3-5 days live within the given range moving to five days beginning the week of April 20th) We trust teachers will respond to student needs over time.
Reviewing and making adjustments to the proposed Student Schedule to ensure that it works for the majority of stakeholders. We anticipate the plan will evolve and adjust over time based on stakeholder feedback.
For now, Math and ELA everyday
Science and Social Studies based on what you were already doing in your classroom
If using Google Classroom as the LMS, the detailed template you sent home before is now replaced by Google Classroom. However, a Student Schedule needs to be shared with your families so they know when live meetings will occur each week. You have the option of using the Student Schedule template (Student/Parent Schedule Template) or class newsletter to let families know when face-face meetings will occur and what the projected learning topics will be.
Please share your google classrooms with me and/or continue to send me your weekly template.
Send to families anytime between Fridays at 3:45 p.m. and Monday mornings at 8:00 a.m.
We did hear last night at the board meeting that families appreciate getting it and having time to organize over the weekend.
If not using a Google Classroom (K-2 only), please continue to share the same detailed template you’ve been sharing. You will need to add when your face-to-face times are scheduled.
Humanities and Weekly Plans
I did not meet with Humanities until this morning. As a result, they were really in the dark as to what they need to have done for next week. The will be creating a google classrooms. However, I am giving them one additional week to get that done. So for the week of 4/13 they will be sending Collegial Chairs their plans for distribution. After that, the only thing you will need to share is their classroom code.
A Message From Steve Banchero
I hope that everyone is doing well.
The operations department has been requested to assist with building access for next week. We are requesting that you distribute this email to your professional staff with the link to the google form. The responses to the questionnaire are recorded for tracking purposes.
As the District prepares for the Continuity of Learning plan, we are providing scheduled opportunities for those staff who truly need to access something within their classroom in order to be able to conduct the virtual learning work. We anticipate that many staff may not need to access the buildings right now, and encourage only those who have a legitimate need to schedule a time under the current circumstances. Once the Stay Home, Stay Safe restrictions are lifted, whenever that may be, we will communicate updated guidance about school access at that time. So please know that while we are providing this opportunity now, subject to all the required safety restrictions and conditions, nobody is expected or required to sign-up if they do not need anything.
For teachers at Hillside, Meads Mill, Moraine and Thornton Creek, “if” your schedule a time to come to the school in the next week, please also consider taking with you any easy to manage personal items from your classroom. We anticipate utilizing some repurposed staff to begin packing classrooms in the months ahead. However, before doing so, we hope to offer yet another opportunity to access classrooms once the Stay Home Stay Safe is lifted. While teachers would have been involved in the packing under normal circumstances, a different approach may be necessary under the current circumstances and timelines. More to come later on that.
The link below will take you to a google form to select a date and time for building access. We are offering two days next week. We kindly ask that you do not bring any dependents or spouses into the building when coming to collect any instructional material.